Bicknell Young, C.S.B., of
London, Eng., a member of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship, delivered
the semiannual lecture on Christian Science, under the auspices of The Mother
Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass., before an
audience of about 5000 people, in the church edifice at Falmouth, Norway and
St. Paul streets, Monday evening. His subject was "Christian Science: The
Power of Good Over Evil."

The speaker was introduced by
Judge Clifford P. Smith, the first reader of The Mother Church, who said:

"These lectures are given
chiefly for the benefit of those who are just becoming interested in the
religion represented by this church. To them I would say only a word.

"Christian Science is a
subject of which no man can afford to be ignorant. You may have heard of this
Science, either from those who disputed it or from those who favored it,
without obtaining much actual information. The lecturer who will be heard here
tonight, stands upon this vantage ground: he has devoted an adequate time to
the study and practise of this Science; his work as a
practitioner and teacher has been followed by satisfactory results in the lives
of others; he has put this Science to good use in his own life; and he speaks
as one having a scientific and practical understanding of his subject.

"For these reasons I value
the privilege of introducing Mr. Bicknell Young, formerly of Chicago, but now
of London, who will address you."

Mr. Young said:

No problem contains within itself
the means of its own solution. This fact is quite as true of life as of
business or any other human endeavor. In the effort to solve the difficulties
in human existence, generally accepted theories of religion and science have
considered afflictions legitimate and inevitable.

Christian Science boldly declares
that they are not legitimate and consequently not inevitable. It takes a new
standpoint. It asserts that a solution of the problems of life becomes possible
only through such scientific education as will lift observation and thought
above mere material experience to the discernment of a permanent basis and an
absolute rule of life.

In line with these logical
conclusions it is seen that the old, constraining method of watching for the
material phases and symptoms of diseases, instead of searching for their
causes, has not tended to decrease them. On the contrary, they have increased,
many new diseases constantly appearing.

Christian Science, on the other
hand, tends to decrease the number of diseases, and it is universally
acknowledged that it has never invented any new ones. Indeed, careful
investigation shows that it both discloses and destroys the roots of disease.

History

As a scientific system of healing
it has a history extending over a period of more than 40 years. It has passed
successfully through the early preliminary stages, encountering much opposition
and prejudice and largely overcoming both. Its record, which is open to all,
reveals wonderful works accomplished, for it has healed thousands of people who
were hopelessly ill with diseases which baffled all other methods of healing,
and has reformed thousands of sinners who were thought to be beyond redemption.

Whatever may have been the
criticisms of the past — today, in the sight of all well-informed and just
people, the Christian Science movement stands vindicated and respected.

Investigation

Christian Science rests upon
absolute facts. These facts are not touched upon or even recognized by
concurrent systems of education, either religious or scientific, which shows
the utter inability of such systems to explain either the basis or the modus
operandi of Christian Science. Yet the facts themselves, though purely
spiritual, are easily understood and, through right education, can be made more
practical in everyday life than any mere human knowledge.

In order to apprehend those facts
and use them, sincerity above all things is required, and with that, an
altitude of thought afforded only by Christian Science itself.

Scientific Basis

Indeed, as a system of education,
Christian Science is unique and original. It explains itself and nothing else
explains it. It can be approached, however, from a common standpoint which is
universally acceptable. That we exist is incontrovertible. It is a fact so
absolute that no one questions it. Upon that fact depends all achievement in
science, art and general progress.

That universal fact involves
correlative facts which are not at first so easily perceived, but which are
just as absolute. Man is not self-existent nor self-creative. He is effect, not
cause.

In such analysis, however, it is
not pretended that human existence illustrates the truth concerning man.
Material life is generally regarded as more or less unsatisfactory. Some may
say it is largely a mistake; and in moments of great discouragement, some have
even declared it to be wholly a mistake. But it matters not what view may be
taken of human existence. Even if it be regarded as a mistake, it would be
admitted as a mistake about something, since it could not be a mistake about
nothing.

Therefore, whatever one believes
or disbelieves, merely by existing he is constantly proclaiming a first great
Cause, the Divine Principle of being whom Christians unite in calling God.

The nature of Divine Principle is
necessarily continuous. No logical thought concerning God is possible without
the acknowledgment of His eternality. Being eternal, He is exempt from any
characteristic or qualities that might tend to interrupt Being.

Disease is universally
acknowledged to be destructive in its nature. Sin is equally so, for it tends
to tear down both character and body. Neither sin nor disease ever build up or
construct. The first great Cause or Creator is constructive, upbuilding. Consequently, Christian Science reasons
inexorably that sin and disease are not of God; that they do not originate in
Him, that they are not sustained nor in any way sanctioned by Him.

It declares that God does not
permit them for any purpose whatever, for in order to do that it would be
necessary for Him to be conscious of them, and to be conscious of an element of
destruction is to have that element.

Christian Science, therefore,
disclosing the fact that God cannot be conscious of any evil element or
quality, crystallizes that fact into the statement, God is good. This deduction
has been generally accepted, but not generally understood as scientific.
Christian Science enables one to understand it by logical reasoning producing
conclusions of the most convincing nature.

The word of God carries an
association the most sacred of any to be found in language, and yet on account
of inadequate education, right ideas of God do not generally prevail.

Not infrequently mental pictures
are entertained in the endeavor to understand God's personality, but no
thinking person believes that it would be possible to make a mental or other
picture of Infinity.

Christian Science is scientific
teaching. It involves right ideas and shows that they are not less scientific
because they are purely spiritual. It employs many expressions to clarify our
thought of God. It does not claim, however, that any or all of them are
sufficient to represent Him. No combination of words could do that, but, on the
other hand, Christian Science reasonably affirms and conclusively proves that
these statements tend to arouse correct thought concerning Deity and thereby
improve the conceptions entertained of Him.

To say God is good is always
helpful, but to say Good is God arouses a more definite idea and enables one to
perceive that a knowledge of Him is natural and intuitive, since, although
ordinary systems of education have not taught us that the first great Cause or
Creator could be known, yet we perceive that we have always known something of
Good and therefore have always known something of God.

The progress of science has
brought to light facts which the physical senses could not reveal. Astronomy
makes known the movements of the solar system. What moves it? Theoretical
science replies, "force or energy." Mind is a word which denotes
fundamental basis. Mind is cause. Therefore Christian Science employs it in the
largest and noblest sense, and shows that nothing less than the Mind which is
Infinite Good is the Cause, Creator, and Action of the universe.

To further improve our
conceptions of Deity, we should see that it is not enough to think of God as
intelligent, or to speak of the mind of God. Such conceptions, although in the
line of truth, are misleading, because they are limited and finite. They tend
to perpetuate the wrong notion of God's personality by giving an impression of
some kind of a creature with a mind inside.

God is not a creature. God is the
Creator and is infinite. Consequently it is far more educational to think and
speak of God as divine Intelligence, infinite Mind, rather than to think or
speak merely of the intelligence or mind of God. Mind is the broader word and
so Christian Scientists use it frequently to declare a sublime and
incontrovertible fact, saying God is Mind, a statement which is, also, more
helpful used conversely, Mind is God, meaning the divine Mind always.

Pure Science

In order to appreciate still more
the value of Christian Science teaching, we must look more deeply than is
common into the word "Science."

Generally speaking science is
associated with materialism. Very few people stop to consider that the
association is wholly incorrect, for although so-called material sciences may
involve, and indeed must involve, the observation of material things, yet
science, whatever its nature, cannot be found in things.

The most that can be said along
the line, even of so-called material sciences, is that the observation of
material phenomena results in certain conclusions, but the conclusions
themselves are wholly mental. Therefore, even so-called material science
involves correct thinking rather than matter. It consists of ideas rather than
things.

Christian Science is not unlike
other sciences in this respect. The ideas which reveal God as Basis, as Divine
Principle of all true existence, are fundamental in this science. We have seen
that these ideas are absolute facts. Though they have not been generally
recognized, they are unquestionably true, and furthermore, they are found to
possess practical value of an unusual nature through the method of Christian
Science which shows how to use them.

Without doubt they are the most
important facts to be associated with education, since they are basic and
eternal, and, through Christian Science, these facts are recognized as
scientific in all their relationships.

Reviewing some of the conclusions
already reached we see that our existence is evidence of Cause or Creator. That
Cause of the universe must be acknowledged as Power. It is not enough to say
that God has power. In an infinite creation there can only be one Cause,
therefore the conclusion that there is only one Power is inevitable, and that
this one Power is All-Power is equally so.

Therefore, the omnipotence of God
is not merely a religious belief but a scientific fact. It comes home to us,
however, with added force and understanding when we remember the statement,
"God is Good." And if we recall St. John's words, "God is
Love," the understanding of what Omnipotence actually is grows still
clearer.

Admitting that we exist, we are
logically forced to admit that God exists and is Power and there follows
inevitably the conclusion that God, Good, Love, is the only real power in the
universe.

What Is Required

In the demonstration of Christian
Science we are called upon to recognize this omnipotence of good and to assert
and maintain it unswervingly in the face of all human difficulties. We are
encouraged in the endeavor, by a perception of the spiritual facts; a
perception which is, at first, largely intellectual or scientific in the
ordinary acceptation of the word: but through study, practise
and faithfulness over the few things which we discern from time to time, a more
spiritual and therefore a more truly scientific appreciation of those facts
begins to dawn upon human understanding.

Christian Science teaches
logically and scientifically that God has created man and the universe after
His own nature. Indeed, in order to reason correctly, we must remember that an
Infinite Creation is like its Infinite Cause and therefore, speaking
scientifically, the creation is good like the Creator.

To recognize that human life is
unlike the divine facts revealed in Christian Science in no way controverts
those facts, but shows the need for their practical application. Sometimes the
ordinary psychologist objects to our reasoning. He says to aver that God does
not know sin or disease, is virtually to say that we can know something that
God cannot know.

Christian Science replies that
manifestly Truth could not know error. The appearance of Truth is the
disappearance of error. Error may be experienced because of wrong education or
fear, but it cannot be known. We may experience twice two is five, but we can
never know it, for it is not true. We simply experience a mistake.

So are sin and disease and all
evil classified in Christian Science. They cannot be known because they are no
part of Science or Truth or God. When they are experienced they are still no
part of real knowledge, and real knowledge in Christian Science removes them.

The whole world tacitly admits
this contention of Christian Science, for the race is engaged in a ceaseless
effort to change undesirable human experience.

Whenever scientific truth
appears, a change is first required in human thought in order that experience
may begin to correspond with the new discovery of truth. Truth, itself, cannot
change and, being the very nature of God, truth is harmonious. Clearly,
therefore, whenever human experience is inharmonious, it must be rectified that
it may correspond more nearly to the divine facts.

These facts as set forth in
Christian Science may appear simple and the system which employs them may not
be regarded as scientific by ordinary educational methods, yet the wisest and
most exalted being who ever lived upon the earth taught that these facts ought
to be understood simply and naturally and illustrated his meaning in the words,
"Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; for of such
is the kingdom of heaven."

Conforms to the Gospel

Christian Science is in strict
conformity with the gospel. Its scientific value rests upon this fact, for,
unquestionably, Jesus taught the truth, since all scientists and philosophers
have agreed that his gospel is of the highest ethical value, that it is,
indeed, eternally true.

Being true, it is unquestionably
scientific, since nothing could be more scientific than that which is eternally
true.

Christian Science not only rests
upon this proposition, but proves it, for it shows that spiritual truth can be
applied with certainty to human problems. It need hardly be said that the
object of all scientific study is to bring to light truth in such a way that it
can be practically demonstrated in human affairs.

The Way of Science

True scientific study always has
a tendency to lift thought above the mere evidence of the senses. So universal
is this that the evidence of the senses in the course of scientific
investigation is not generally accepted without some verification. We are all
familiar with instances where one is accustomed to accept truth which the
senses can in no way indicate. The rotundity and movement of the earth and many
other phenomena are familiar examples to illustrate this point.

The question then of whether it
is reasonable to accept the evidence of the senses without protest when such
evidence is painful or afflictive is one to be considered by every thinking
person. Sin and disease appear wholly as the evidence of the senses. If they
are ever to disappear, that evidence must be taken into consideration.

Christian Science shows
conclusively that harmony, including health and life, is the naturally divine
provision established for man and all creation. Sin and disease do not appear
and cannot be known through God or through anything that He ever said or did.

Listening only to the Divine Mind
by entertaining the ideas which reveal and express God, good, one would never
learn or experience anything of disease or sin. These are known to and through
the material senses alone.

Christian Science does not demand
that we shall ignore this testimony or that evil can be overcome merely by
attempting to ignore it. Its teaching is truly optimistic, but also scientific.
Its optimism rests upon Divine Truth and carries with it a demand that truth
shall be proved as all powerful in human experience. By lifting thought above
the mere evidence of the senses, a scientific attitude is attained and, when
maintained, is found to produce practical results.

No Denial of Existence

Persons unaccustomed to Christian
Science teaching, however, are apt to think that a denial of material sense of
things is equivalent to the denial of one's own existence, but that such is not
the case is clearly shown when we remember that sometimes in the contemplation
of something very beautiful, or when absorbed in some interesting subject, we
forget our material existence and live in a realm entirely above it for the
time being.

Such experiences give a hint of
Christian Science teaching concerning the real man and his relation to God, and
show conclusively that a discernment of immortality is to be gained by rising
above the evidence of the senses.

If it be scientific along the
lines of human endeavor to expect that the evidence of the senses concerning
the outside world will be changed by means of science, and this is the
expectation, is it unscientific to expect that such evidence in relation to the
human body may also be changed? Is it less scientific for Christian Science to
change the evidence of the senses in this regard than for other sciences to
change other evidences of the senses?

Though the ways by which such
changes are accomplished in Christian Science are different is it necessarily
less scientific? Since all science involves the recognition of ideas and their
use, shall that not be legitimately called science which brings to light right
ideas concerning God and shows how to employ them?

The Christ Way

Unquestionably this is the Christ
way, even though it be not generally recognized as such. The works of Jesus
have generally been regarded as miraculous; no doubt they were so to human
sense, but they were not unlawful.

It is generally believed that the
whole course of nature was interrupted and the laws of nature set aside in
order that he might do those wonderful works. Christian Science inculcates
other and better views. It shows that the works of Jesus were miraculous alone
to those who did not or had not understood them. To him they were natural and
lawful. He did not set aside the law of God but fulfilled it, just as he said
he came to do.

Anything unusual is apt to appear
miraculous and especially so to ignorance. If a savage were to appear among us
he would find that we were doing many things which would seem to him
inexplicable and therefore miraculous, but they are to us scientific and
perfectly natural. So it is with the works of Jesus, the power which he
exercised has been misunderstood and ascribed to his personality but, to put it
in a homely way, it was not what he looked like, it was not mere appearance
that enabled him to do his works, but what he understood, what he thought. What
he thought we may think and he declared that we must, for he said, "I am
the way." There is no other way of doing anything.

Do Christian Scientists love
Jesus less because they of all people recognize most clearly the character of
his works and means by which they were accomplished? He did not say, "Grow
emotional over my memory or shout my names with hallelujahs," but he gave
one rule by which men should prove their love for him, saying, "If ye love
me, keep my commandments."

Christian Scientists are striving
to keep them all, including the one to heal the sick. They believe that all
Christians will ultimately awake to discern this manifest duty and to avail
themselves of their natural privilege to heal the sick by spiritual power as
taught in Christian Science.

In showing that the scientific
way to overcome disease is to resist the evidence of the senses whenever such
evidence testifies to the presence of disease, Christian Science is indicating
the Christ way. Jesus himself said at the tomb of Lazarus in the face of all
the evidences of the senses, "I knew that Thou hearest
me always," and this recognition that God is the Creator of man and that
therefore man's life is immortal and uninterrupted in spite of the evidence of
material sense to the contrary, raised Lazarus from the dead.

Practically all religious
experience shows that sin is the most difficult evil element to eradicate. So
tenacious is it that all Christians admit that it can be eliminated only by
Christ. Admitting this, then, I say it is preposterous to assume that the
lesser element, disease, cannot be eliminated through Christ except by aid of
drugs, surgical operations or other material means.

Christian Science maintains a
consistent attitude: it is invariable both as to principle and rule, and it
shows that the ideas which reveal God originate in Him and can be employed
through the scientific method of Christian Science, the Christ power, which
operates to change the inharmonious evidence of the senses.

But it may be asked when
Christian Science heals a case of disease, does not the evidence of the senses
say that the person is well, and if one cannot accept such evidence when it
testifies of disease, how can he do so when it testifies of health?

Christian Science replies that
harmony is the natural status of man and is God's law to man. When disease is
overcome through the application of that law, it is Science which has achieved
the result and the result is scientific.

The material senses, finding
their master in the Christ Truth, yield to that law and testify to health. Were
it otherwise they would be greater than God, but the healing is not merely
sense testimony; it is the evidence of scientific truth.

Disease

The race has been striving for
centuries to mitigate or eliminate the ravages of disease. Indeed, it is
admitted that disease is wholly abnormal and undesirable. Every sane person is
willing to part with it. Christian Science classifies it correctly. It shows
that disease cannot be any part of God and that the Creator could not create
anything harmful or inharmonious. Disease is therefore seen to be no part of
Science or Truth and the conclusion is inevitable that it is wholly in the
nature of error.

This analysis, however, while
absolutely logical, is not immediately satisfactory. It requires proof. The one
who hears it will admit that although he may object to the teaching that
disease is error, yet he would be glad if it were. Indeed, all the world would
be glad to recognize the erroneous nature of human suffering. It is then worth while to find out that we are all agreed in the wish
that disease might be only a mistake.

The question naturally arises,
then, how does Christian Science classify disease more specifically, and the
answer is that as disease does not exist in Truth or God. It only exists in
belief, and that, in the last analysis, mankind is not contending with disease
per se, but with the belief of disease which, on account of centuries of wrong
education along the lines of superstition and fear, appears more real than
truth itself.

But, it may be added, if it is
admitted that the race is suffering, what difference does it make to classify
disease as belief, since the experience is the same whether it be called
disease or belief? Christian Science answers that it makes a vast difference.
Recognizing disease as belief there is less fear of it and there immediately
appears the possibility of overcoming it if the teaching in this respect is
understood.

With the old idea that disease is
natural and perhaps God-ordained, that it has inherent power and exists and
continues according to law, we are hopeless; but with the understanding that
such is not the case and that disease, not originating in God, has no real
origin nor inherent power, one sees the possibility of destroying disease, even
when it is called incurable.

Evil Considered

If we admit a Creation and
thereby admit the existence of a Creator who must be eternal we are forced to
admit the conclusion that God is not the author of sin, disease, or their
culmination, death.

This fact is irrefutable and it
is basic in Christian Science. Now, then comes at once the question as to how
sin and disease, including want and woe, could even appear. When one explains
to the inquirer that they could not originate in the Infinite, and that
therefore they have no origin and that their appearance is false, he ponders,
and then with a sudden conviction that he is about to propound a most original
and unanswerable question he straightway demands: Well, granting that they have
no cause and therefore no real existence, how is it that they seem to exist?

Let it be said without further
delay that this question is neither unanswerable nor original. Everybody asks
it some time in his career. There is, however, only one way of getting a
satisfactory answer and that is through the proof which Christian Science affords
by actual demonstration.

When one accepts the
unquestionable fact that God is not the author of anything destructive or
afflictive and begins to maintain that fact and reasons from it that disease or
affliction having no origin in God, have no law of action or presence and no
real existence, then he will get a proof of the efficacy of Christian Science
instruction, and that proof explains disease or affliction by eliminating it.
The destruction of evil is the explanation of evil and there is no other.

It cannot be destroyed by the
popular systems of medicine and theology. The best they can do is to mitigate
human suffering to some extent. To ascribe such experiences to God, as these
systems generally try to do in some mysterious way, tends to perpetuate sin and
disease.

Practical Demonstration

Besides this I say to you that
you do not need a theoretical explanation of evil. You and all mankind need a
practical demonstration that it is not so powerful as God — Good. This you can
gain by seeing and maintaining the fact that because God is the infinite Cause
and Creator He is the only power, and is therefore all power, and remembering
that God is good and as St. John so beautifully says, "God is Love,"
you can help yourself by using these terms conversely, saying Good is God, and
therefore, God, divine Love, infinite good is the one power and consequently
the only power in the universe.

Remember that as you prove evil
to be less and less powerful and less and less influential in your lives you
are forcing evil to its vanishing point. If it were real like God it would be
eternal and infinite and you could never get rid of one iota of it.

The question of the real and
unreal seems at first difficult in the endeavor to understand and practise Christian Science. It should not be lightly
considered. Christian Science does not teach us to deny in a flippant manner
such terrible experiences as sin and disease. The object of Christian Science practise is to reduce the prevalence of sin and disease and
ultimately to eliminate them.

They clearly have no divine
origin. The creation must be and is like the Creator. This fact is
incontrovertible, and in the light of it we see why the Bible says that
"God saw all that He created, and behold it was very good." It would
be impossible for God to see any other creation than the one which is wholly
good.

Now, the question arises: is it
proper for us to try and see God's creation as he sees it? Is it right to know
that man must be like God, like Good? Is it religious and scientific for us to
strive for an altitude of thought which can at least declare the truth about
God and His creation and His man. His law must be a law of perfection, peace
and ceaseless harmonious action.

Which is more Christian, to
strive to behold the universe spiritually or materially? Which is more
scientific, to declare the nature of truth to be eternal, just, lawful and
wholly right and good, or to believe that truth is both mortal and immortal,
both just and unjust, both lawful and lawless, both right and wrong?

No Explanation of Evil

God never demands an explanation
of evil. It is unknown to God. Man in the image and likeness of God, expressing
infinite being and strength and power, spiritually conceived, spiritually
guided, spiritually sustained and provided, asks no explanation of evil. The
only thing that ever asks for an explanation of evil is evil itself, which has
always said: "How did it happen that I appeared," and thus striven to
give further semblance of reality to itself by demanding an explanation of
itself.

The wise Christian Scientist and
the student who is gaining wisdom should be awake to this subtle argument, and
begin the process of demonstration by which sin and disease disappear. There
are hundreds of readings of various passages from the Old and New Testaments.
In all these the human element is largely in evidence. Rarely indeed has
spiritual truth been discerned. Christian Science, giving one the basis for
right thought and right thinking, and the Principle by which to test such
thought and guide all action, is disclosing the spiritual import of the Holy
Scriptures.

Of all the earnest students of
the Holy Scriptures to be found in the world today, none are more earnest, none
more sincere, none more prayerfully looking for the way by which men are to be
saved, and for the power by which to save them, than are Christian Scientists.
They are able to discern, and are discerning more and more every day, the truth
which the Bible teaches. They are able to look through and beyond the usual
interpretations, and they see here and there and everywhere the spiritual fact
which is set forth, even though it be clouded by the material history.

The means by which they can
achieve such results for themselves in the way of education is the Christian
Science textbook, "Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,"
by Mary Baker Eddy, a book in which one may find the divine Principle of being
clearly indicated and taught, and the rule of its application unmistakably
defined.

Gratitude to Mrs. Eddy

The world cannot fully understand
the debt of gratitude which it owes to Mrs. Eddy. The perspective of history
will alone reveal it and even then perhaps only partially. When she discovered
the Divine Principle of Christian Science, if she had stopped there, merely applying
her discovery to her own needs, the world would not have been benefited. She
went much further than that. Impelled by an irresistible longing to help
mankind, she saw that the method of Christian healing must be stated in such a
way as to be understood and practised.

Through years of experience, she
gradually formulated the statements of Christian Science, both as to its Divine
Principle and Rule, and the Christian Science text-book, Science and Health, is
consequently not a theoretical work, but a practical, scientific exposition of
the Christ Science. The statements which it contains constantly grow in beauty
and sublimity the more the book is studied.

The book enables one to
understand the spiritual import of the Bible, and, like the Holy Scriptures,
"Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures" discloses the
Infinite Science of Infinite Life. It declares what the Bible declares in
relation to God and His law, and makes the teachings of the Holy Scriptures
practicable and applicable to all human needs.

Through Mrs. Eddy's teachings,
thousands of people have been healed of diseases generally regarded as
incurable. Innumerable cases of sin and sinful tendencies have been utterly
changed. People in hundreds of instances have been made useful Christian men
and women through Mrs. Eddy's teachings. Many of us have come out of great
tribulation and discouragement through gaining some understanding of those
teachings.

Is there any wonder that this
great army of beneficiaries should be grateful to Mrs. Eddy? Our attitude
toward her is not always clearly understood. It may be, indeed, that in the
exuberance of new-found hope and in the enthusiasm of regained health, the
Christian Scientists do sometimes themselves give a wrong impression concerning
their attitude of love and gratefulness towards Mrs. Eddy. But better this than
that they should be ungrateful.

Sometimes it is asked why was it
Mrs. Eddy who found out about Christian Science? Of course, no satisfactory
answer can be given to a person who asks a question of that kind. Education
must show him that truth always appears where there is opportunity for its
appearance. Undoubtedly Mrs. Eddy, through years of experience and trial, with
a constant importunate desire to know and do the will of God was spiritually
prepared to receive the truth which came to her; to recognize its scientific
nature and to discern and set forth the rule by which it could be proved among
men.

But this is not the whole of the
debt of gratitude which humanity owes to Mrs. Eddy. During over 40 years she
has stood and maintained her teachings of Christian Science in their integrity.
In the early years of this experience, she was opposed by all the existing
theories of religion, science and education. Derision and contumely, not to say
malignity, were heaped upon her. Through it all she stood.

We read that in ancient times a
certain prophet had a friend on either hand who held up his hands in an hour of
peril and trial to himself and his people, but in those early days Mrs. Eddy
had no such friends. She stood alone, sustained by her knowledge of the
presence and the power of God, Who is Love; one of the sublimest
examples of exalted courage to be found in the history of the race; and she
still stands as the Leader of this great movement, but now, through faith and
faithfulness, no longer alone, for thousands of friends and followers stand
with her.

[Delivered May 9, 1910, under the auspices of The Mother Church, The First
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and published in The
Christian Science Monitor, May 10, 1910.]